Louis Emanuel Martin

Journalist, newspaper publisher, civil rights activist and advisor. Martin earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Michigan in 1934. He moved to Cuba after college to work as a freelance writer in Havana for two years. After returning to the U.S., he began working for the Chicago Defender, and in 1937, he was sent to help found the Michigan Chronicle, both black newspapers. He became an active Democrat during his eleven-year career at the Detroit newspaper, seeing the benefits the Democratic Party offered in terms of advancing the causes of organized labor and black civil rights. Martin returned to the Defender in 1947 as editor-in-chief, a position he held until 1959. Martin worked as a volunteer for Senator John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960 and later as an advisor to him. During the campaign, he persuaded candidate John F. Kennedy to call Coretta King to express his concern about her husband's arrest, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. That phone conversation is widely credited with helping Kennedy win a large share of the black vote in that year's general election. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Kennedy invited 800 black people to the White House in 1963. Martin helped in the planning of the event. From 1960 to 1969, he served as deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee and helped to form the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which assisted newly elected black officials. As a trusted advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin encouraged him to select Thurgood Marshall as the first black to serve on the United States Supreme Court. President Carter named Martin a special presidential assistant specializing in policies affecting minorities and women in 1978, a position he held until 1981, when he became assistant vice president of communications at Howard University. He stayed for six years there. He wrote a weekly column for The Chicago Defender from his home in California from 1987 until his death. Martin will always be remembered as the "Godfather of Black Politics." He was awarded the National Urban League's Equal Opportunity Award in 1979, the National Newspaper Publishers Association's John B. Russwurm Award in 1980, Howard University's Communications Award in 1987, and the Democratic Party's Larry O'Brien Achievement Award in 1992, as well as honorary degrees from Wilberforce University in 1951, Harvard University in 1970, Howard University in 1979, and Wesleyan University in 1980.